Assessment of the Knowledge Regarding Antenatal Exercises Among Antenatal Women in Selected Community Area

Abstract

Healthy mothers & children are the real wealth of a society & nation. Pregnancy is itself a difficult time. Antenatal care & regular exercises promotes overall health of mother as well as fetus. Antenatal exercises include: deep breathing, pelvic tilting, abdominal breathing, knee & leg rolling, butterfly, walking, cat & camel exercises etc. Study includes quantitative research approach with descriptive research design. 80 antenatal mothers were selected by non-probability purposive sampling technique. Self-structured questionnaire was used as tool to measure the knowledge score on antenatal exercises. Study findings show that 75% antenatal women had moderate knowledge where as 22.5% had inadequate knowledge. Only 2.5% of antenatal women exhibit adequate knowledge. Descriptive statistics reveals a mean value 15.78 within median score of 16 & standard deviation of 4.47. Findings of the study conclude that there is strong need for community-based awareness program to enhance knowledge & practice level of antenatal women regarding antenatal exercises.